He Said She Said

I’ve been interviewed and have answered questions for over 45 years and said a lot of things to many journalists and with rare exception some of it maybe much of it got into print even though much of it or maybe just some of it got rearranged by an editor or assistant, but I’m more than very used to it. So when I read about others and what they’re purported to have said or see a quote attributed to them or just see a forum thread about what someone does based on an article published (in the old days I might have written “printed”) somewhere I pause. I pause because I know or at least I accept that the news or the article or the words or all of it AS WELL AS the pictures that are used to sweeten it up – all of it is a currency that those with the pens and pads and mics and recorders use to make their own mark on the world. We do what we do. We make things. They ask us all sorts of questions about what we do. And make. And then the parcel of intellect we hand over becomes their property to bundle and present as content. Content. Then after all of this the receiver digests it in his own inimitable and unique way and decides based on reading skills and attention span and most of all depth – he decides what it is we said. It doesn’t matter what we said. Because that part of the equation is already gone.